So it seems that last week a group of young men tried to cross over
illegally from Juarez to El Paso at the Black Bridge. A lone Border
Patrol Agent stopped them, arrested one and the rest ran back across
the river (Trickle actually as the bulk of the Rio Grande's water is
diverted through canals just up stream to prevent the river from
changing channels and thus relocating the Border.) The escapees then
began to pelt the BP guy with rocks. He pulled his issue pistol and
shot at his assailants, killing one. The incident was videotaped and
the tape played on local media. The Mexican government is angry,
Immigrant rights Groups are furious, and everyone is getting their
panties in a knot.

I believe in open borders, amnesties and all sorts of good stuff. And
I say the deceased had it coming. In the first place years of living
on the border have taught me that the kids crossing under the Black
Bridge are not coming over to work, attend school, meet girlfriends or
other honest business. They come to look for trouble. Maybe it's just
a "mischievous lark," maybe it's a recce for alien and drug smugglers,
maybe it's to shoplift and commit burglary. Back until the border was
sealed in the early Nineties juvenile gangs crossed at the Black
Bridge to rob, rape and murder those who crossed informally to look
for honest work. Five decades of observation and experience have led
me to conclude they are not coming over to live by and celebrate the
Zero Aggression Principal.

Secondly, you can in fact kill or at least seriously injure a man
throwing rocks. The BP Agent had a choice between retreating and thus
letting a suspect he had reason to believe was entering the US for the
purpose of committing crimes other than illegal entry go or firing
with his sidearm on his assailants. It is appropriate for a law
enforcement officer to shoot under those circumstances. I am assuming
reasonable marksmanship and just right sized rocks being used by the
kids throwing rocks.

Finally, how many kids in Juarez have been murdered in the drug wars
tearing up the town to where its murder rate exceeds the casualty
rates for the filibusters in Iraq and Afghanistan? Where is the
outrage over the drug war in J-Town ten years ago and the deaths it
caused? Where is the anger over the systematic robbery, rape and
murder of schoolgirls, factory workers and prostitutes that really
didn't stop in the mid Nineties?

People have been found not guilty of murder for using a gun to fight
off assailants armed with rocks. As much as I dislike our immigration
laws I am not about to require that those enforcing them either fail
to do their jobs or submit to potentially lethal assault, especially
by those who profit by the maxim that when an activity is outlawed it
is taken over by criminals. And I am not going to express support for
a ruling class like the one in Mexico condemning the US for violating
their citizens rights when they piss on those rights, and the people
whose rights they are for that matter, on a consistent and regular
basis.

Maybe if I hadn't spent so much of my life in the area where this
happened I would look at it differently. However, I did and my
judgment is shaped by what I observed and still observe. Come live In
Downtown El Paso, Sunset Heights, and Segudo Barrio and then you can
judge also.

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